Quincy presses forward on plans to take houses for sports field and parking

Wednesday

Jul 2, 2014 at 6:00 AMJul 2, 2014 at 5:41 PM

If any North Quincy homeowners refuse to sell their houses to the city, Mayor Koch said he would consider asking city council to approve an eminent domain taking through lawsuits and court trials.

Chris Burrell The Patriot Ledger @Burrell_Ledger

QUINCY – Mayor Thomas Koch said Tuesday that the city is close to cutting a deal with three of the nine homeowners in North Quincy, whose houses must be demolished before the city can move forward with a $12-million project to build an expanded parking lot and sports field.

If any of the remaining homeowners refuse to sell their houses to the city, Koch said he would consider asking city council to approve an eminent domain taking. “Eminent domain is an option I will look at. It is a tool of last resort but it is a tool.”

City council president Joseph Finn said a push for eminent domain taking could face some resistance from councilors.

“If this were to go into realm of an eminent domain order in front of the council, it would be a completely different issue at that point in time,” Finn said.

City leaders have stressed they want to buy the nine homes from the owners through so-called “friendly” negotiations, but some homeowners in the working-class and largely Asian neighborhood haven’t seen in that way and expressed anger and worry in response to the city’s actions.

“As for a friendly takeover, I think it’s more like friendly fire,” said Roland Cote, who has lived at 26 Hunt St. for more than four decades.

Two weeks ago, city councilors approved a $12-million bond for a project that calls for acquiring nine homes on Hunt Street and Newbury Avenue and then tearing them down to make way for a new synthetic-turf playing surface at Teel Field and a 157-space parking lot behind the North Quincy High School building. The project would also include efforts to mitigate chronic flooding in the area through drainage and ponds.

“I understand and am sensitive to the issue of having to take homes. We don’t that take that lightly,” said Koch, who pointed to benefits of the project for both the school and the larger neighborhood.

But Cote criticized Quincy government for not inviting the homeowners to the June 16 city council meeting where councilors voted to approve borrowing money for the project and to move forward with efforts to convince homeowners to sell their property to the city. “Why weren’t residents informed and able to speak their piece before they voted,” Cote asked.

May Che Lai, who lives with her husband and teenage daughter in a Hunt Street duplex the couple bought in 1988, said she doesn’t want to uproot from the neighborhood.

“It’s really convenient here,” she said. “I take the train. Everything is close to here.”

Five of the nine homeowners whose properties are targeted by the city are Asian, from China and Vietnam. And many of the residents on the quiet side street are working-class with jobs in retail, food-service and building trades.

Zygmunt Plater, a professor at Boston College Law School, said these homeowners should not acquiesce to the city, but instead force the case into an eminent domain process.

“They all should go to trial,” said Plater. “A jury usually gives the highest compensations.”

Compensation is a paramount concern, he added: “Very often the family cannot find a home with the same quality of life for the amount of money they are going to get.”

Plater also questioned whether city leaders would consider a compromise.

“Given the harm that’s being done to this little community, an Asian community that lives there, why not just develop it so as not to take these houses?” he asked.

Engineering plans for the expansion project show a parking lot on the space now occupied by eight of the homes on Hunt Street.

“It’s all one project,” said Koch, rejecting the notion that plans could be modified to save the residents’ houses.

City leaders want to move swiftly to buy the rest of the houses by later this month or early August, but it’s unclear whether the remaining homeowners will sell to the city or force the issue to court.

Larry Tasney, one of the homeowners on Hunt Street, isn’t happy. “Having to leave is one thing, but having to leave on somebody else’s schedule is a different thing,” he said.

Christopher Burrell may be reached at cburrell@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @Burrell_Ledger.

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